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May 2018 Memphis Rent Report

Welcome to the May 2018 Memphis Rent Report. Memphis rents remained steady over the past month. In this report, we'll evaluate trends in the Memphis rental market, including comparisons to cities throughout the state and nation.

May 2018 Memphis Rent Report

Welcome to the May 2018 Memphis Rent Report. Memphis rents remained steady over the past month. In this report, we'll evaluate trends in the Memphis rental market, including comparisons to cities throughout the state and nation.

Memphis rents held steady over the past month

Memphis rents have remained flat over the past month, however, they are up marginally by 0.5% year-over-year. Currently, median rents in Memphis stand at $690 for a one-bedroom apartment and $820 for a two-bedroom. Memphis' year-over-year rent growth lags the state and national averages, which both stand at 1.5%.

Rents rising across cities in Tennessee

Throughout the past year, rent increases have been occurring not just in the city of Memphis, but across the entire state. Of the largest 10 cities that we have data for in Tennessee, all of them have seen prices rise. The state as a whole logged rent growth of 1.5% over the past year. Here's a look at how rents compare across some of the largest cities in the state.

Looking throughout the state, Franklin is the most expensive of all Tennessee's major cities, with a median two-bedroom rent of $1,270; of the 10 largest Tennessee cities that we have data for, all have seen rents rise year-over-year, with Hendersonville experiencing the fastest growth (+5.0%).

Knoxville, Smyrna, and Chattanooga have all experienced year-over-year growth above the state average (4.6%, 3.1%, and 2.5%, respectively).

Memphis rents more affordable than many other large cities nationwide

As rents have increased in Memphis, a few similar cities nationwide have also seen rents grow modestly. Memphis is still more affordable than most comparable cities across the country.

Memphis' median two-bedroom rent of $820 is below the national average of $1,170. Nationwide, rents have grown by 1.5% over the past year compared to the 0.5% rise in Memphis.

While Memphis' rents rose over the past year, many cities nationwide also saw increases, including Phoenix (+2.3%), Atlanta (+1.9%), and Denver (+1.6%).

Renters will find more reasonable prices in Memphis than most other large cities. For example, San Francisco has a median 2BR rent of $3,060, which is more than three-and-a-half times the price in Memphis.

For more information check out our
national report.
You can also access our full data for cities and counties across the U.S. at
this link.

Methodology - Recent Updates:

Data from private listing sites, including our own, tends to skew toward luxury apartments, which introduces sample bias when estimates are calculated directly from these listings. To address these limitations, we’ve recently made major updates to our methodology, which we believe have greatly improved the accuracy and reliability of our estimates.

Read more about our new methodology below, or see a more detailed post here.

Methodology:

Apartment List is committed to making our rent estimates the best and most accurate available. To do this, we start with reliable median rent statistics from the Census Bureau, then extrapolate them forward to the current month using a growth rate calculated from our listing data. In doing so, we use a same-unit analysis similar to Case-Shiller’s approach, comparing only units that are available across both time periods to provide an accurate picture of rent growth in cities across the country.

Our approach corrects for the sample bias inherent in other private sources, producing results that are much closer to statistics published by the Census Bureau and HUD. Our methodology also allows us to construct a picture of rent growth over an extended period of time, with estimates that are updated each month.

About Rent Reports:

Apartment List publishes monthly reports on rental trends for hundreds of cities across the U.S. We intend these reports to be a source of reliable information that help renters and policymakers make sound decisions, and we invest significant time and effort in gathering and analyzing rent data. Our work is covered regularly by journalists across the country.

We are continuously working to improve our methodology and data, with the goal of providing renters with the information that they need to make the best decisions.